At Least Once
by Yaya The Elf
Summary: A few strands of loose dark hair hang in her face, her braid messy, looking as if she slept on it… which she probably did. She's a lot skinnier than she was before the games; it's almost painful to look at. Her large grey eyes reflect the sunlight on the pond when she glances up at it. And there is no sign of her being in love with Peeta Mellark. Or me.


_Disclaimer:_

_I do not own the Hunger Games or any of it's characters.  
_

_This idea had been bugging me for a while... and I had been trying to think of a romance idea to see if I'm any good at that genre... and so this was born!  
_

_Hope you enjoy.  
_

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**At Least Once**

Walking through the woods, carefully, quietly, as I try to not scare away animals. Trying to become like the animals, gaining their trust… and finally killing the game. It's a practice I've done for so long that it's become like a second nature to me; sometimes I end up doing it unintentionally. But hunting is hardly on my mind. All of my attention is focused on meeting up with my best friend, Katniss Everdeen, whom I've not seen in person since she's come back from the Hunger Games. How terrible those two weeks were for me… watching her onscreen, her almost facing death every moment of the day. And then there were all those moments with her in the cave…

No, I won't think of that. She thinks of me only as a friend, and whether or not Peeta Mellark is truly her lover is none of my concern. Because Catnip is just my friend. That's all we'll ever be, even if I hate that fact.

I find her sitting alone where we ate breakfast before the reaping. Before I can call out her name, something makes me stop and keep quiet. She does not know I'm here. Ten feet away from her, I keep silent and quietly watch her, although if it's because I'm angry at her for all those times she spent with her district partner in the arena, or if I'm angry at myself for not having the guts to tell her how I felt about her before Peeta Mellark blabbed to the whole word his love, or even if I just want to just look at her for a second, I have no idea. Maybe it's all three of those at once.

She does not look well. She bites her nails nervously and stares at the ground; her eyes full of tears, looking on the verge of crying. Is she thinking of the games? Or of something else? I wonder if she's been waiting long, and if she thinks I've forgotten about her. Once her eyes finally start to leak tears, she looks up at me, jumps up and slams into my body, wrapping her arms around me while sobbing into my shirt. Without thinking, I pull her closer to me, wrapping my own arms around her tightly, and just hold her and let her cry. She keeps her face buried in my shirt, and causes quite a wet stain on it, too, but I keep her small body close to mine until she's all cried out, getting such a loud case of the hiccups that I have to take her to the nearby pound to get her a drink.

"Sorry," she says between a gulp of pound water and a hiccup. "I didn't know I would turn into such a wreck." She gives me an embarrassed smile, and, of course, hiccups loudly.

"It's fine," I say, shrugging.

"I mean… it's just that," she is interrupted by a hiccup. "I, I thought that you had forgotten about me, I guess. Like you gave up, and you maybe even hated me, even. So… when I saw you, I don't know, I guess…" She hiccups.

"Come on, Catnip," I say teasingly, wrapping my arm around her. "I could never hate you." She gives me a smile, one that makes my insides melt.

"So," she says, taking another gulp of water. "What's for breakfast?"

I feel a grin cross my face. "Oh, you're going to love this," I smile. "It's something I caught while hunting. Wait right here." I take my hunting bag and go behind a nearby tree.

"Something for a 'special occasion'?" she asks. "You didn't have to waste your precious game just to go all out for the occasion."

"Oh, I definitely went all out for the occasion," I say, coming out from the tree and holding up breakfast: a long roll of fancy bread with an arrow through it.

Katniss breaks out into a smile and laughs. I like having that effect on her. Sitting down next to her, maybe a bit too close, I tear off a piece for Katniss and one for myself.

"You didn't have to waste your money to buy this for me," Katniss says, taking a bite.

"But I _want _to," I say.

"Seriously," she says, taking another, larger bite. "You didn't have to do this."

I laugh and roll my eyes, and we eat the rest of our breakfast in silence, watching the pond and the sunlight pour onto it. Sitting there next to her, I resist the urge to wrap my arm around her or sit closer to her. Instead, I sit there quietly, chewing on good bakery bread, full of feelings that cause confusion and leave me laying in my bed awake at night, but also cause warmth and pleasant chills whenever I'm around her. I wonder if she feels the same way? There were times when I watched the games that I thought the whole "star crossed lovers from 12" was fake by the way Katniss acted, but there were also other times when it seemed… real. On both their parts. I look at Katniss, trying to see if there's a distant look in her eye, like she's thinking of someone special. But instead, she's focused on her bread like it's the most important thing in the world. A few strands of loose dark hair hang in her face, her braid messy, looking as if she slept on it… which she probably did. She's a lot skinnier than she was before the games; it's almost painful to look at. Her large grey eyes reflect the sunlight on the pond when she glances up at it. And there is no sign of her being in love with Peeta Mellark. Or me.

She notices that I'm staring at her. I suddenly think that she's going to say something important… something that I want her to say desperately. "Want to go fishing, or hunting first?" she asks me.

Well, that definitely wasn't it.

"Uhm… I don't care," I shrug. "You choose."

"Let's go fishing," she says. "I'll go get the fishing poles, okay?"

"Sure," I say as she gets up to fetch the poles.

Once she has the poles, we get up and go find another, larger pond with has much more fish. We use the remaining pieces of bread as bait and talk about stupid stuff, like how one of the Peacekeepers got in trouble for getting a tattoo, since apparently Peacekeepers aren't aloud to be a part of the Capitol's hideous fashion trends. Or old memories, like how that crazy lynx followed Katniss around for a whole day, or when Katniss took Prim hunting. What we don't talk about is the Hunger Games, or my new job in the mines. I wonder if she's worried about that job… both our fathers died in them, after all.

"Ooh, looks like I caught I big one," she says, reeling in a large fish. She gives me a grin; I give her a halfhearted one.

"You think we've got enough fish?" she asks.

"Yea," I say. "Let's go check on the snares."

The rest goes on like a normal Sunday, almost as if the Hunger Games had never happened. We hunt and gather silently… well, then I guess it isn't really a normal Sunday. I usually go on long rants about the Capitol during our hunting time, but somehow that doesn't seem appropriate after what's happened. While we gather strawberries, my mind wanders to one of the times I went on what Katniss likes to call "Gale time".

"Don't you think it's stupid to continue the Hunger Games?" I asked, at that time 16 years old.

"Uh, huh," a 14 year old Katniss mumbled, looking around for game.

"I mean, the rebellion happened so long ago," I said. "All the people who were a part of it have to be dead now. We didn't do anything! So why punish us, you know what I'm saying?"

"Yea," she rolled her eyes. "Uh, huh."

"What exactly does it prove?" I continued. "Nothing, that's what! It actually makes it more likely for us to revolt… since we've gotten so sick of the whole thing!"

"That is so true," Katniss said blankly. She then looked down at a bush with berries on it. "Are these blueberries?" she asked, getting a closer look. Then she jumped back. "NIGHTLOCK!" she yelled. "THEY'RE NIGHTLOCK!"

"Are you even listening to me?" I asked.

"Yea," she said. "You were talking about Peacekeepers, right?"

"No," I said. "Come on, Katniss! This is important stuff! Don't you agree that our country is a mess?"

"I hear you," she said. "But… I mean, ranting about it in the woods isn't really going to change anything. And, no offense, it scares off game."

"But-" I started.

"Look, Gale," she said. "I agree that our country… is pretty bad. But what can we do about it?"

I wanted to continue to protest, but she told me that the rants wouldn't do anything, and that I should just zip it. Well, she's getting her wish now. "Gale time" is over, thanks to the Hunger Games. And she didn't know then, also, that nightlock would one day save her life.

Even though that trick with the berries did save her life, I still can't help but despise the whole thing. An act of love… she couldn't live without him. If I had known she was pretending, it probably wouldn't bother me as much. But, truthfully, she seemed pretty sincere, like living without Peeta Mellark was the worst thing that could ever happen to her. Watching her do that stunt, I knew that I should've told her what she meant to me. And now I'll always have to wonder… what if?

Once our hunting time is over, we walk over to a hole in the fence that's closest to the Hob.

"Here," she says, handing me her game. "I won't need it, with all our money now."

She starts going on about how she's going to skip the Hob today, since her mother and Prim don't know that she's here. Then she starts talking about how she should take over the daily snare run, and is asking me what I think about that. I look at her, looking so beautiful, and I feel my heart ache. Knowing that she'll never feel the same way about me, that she is more likely to fall in love with Peeta than I. I don't resist anymore. Without a second thought, I take her face into my hands, pull her toward me and kiss her.

It takes her by surprise, and me, too, kind of. But it's nice. Very nice, actually, and warm. It's as good as I thought it would be… better, even. I hadn't known Katniss smelled faintly of pine.

I let her go, watching her look up at me, her grey eyes large with surprise and her face very, very red. Suddenly, I get sort of embarrassed, look to the ground and say, "I… I had to do that. At least once."

And then I was gone, feeling like a bigger idiot than before.


End file.
